BY TIM GRENDA, J.D.

In a win for personal injury attorneys, the federal judge presiding over hundreds of injury claims filed by drivers over sudden acceleration problems with their Toyota-made vehicles has ordered the car maker to preserve documents held by dealerships which may be related to the controversy.

Documents stored at Toyota and Lexus dealers across the United States could be relevant to the lawsuits and should be kept handy for possible use in the litigation over injuries caused by allegedly defective gas pedals, U.S. District Judge James V. Selna ruled this week.

Selna is the federal judge picked to oversee the Multidistrict Litigation over Toyota sudden acceleration lawsuits in an Orange County, California federal courtroom. More than 300 personal injury lawsuits from people across the U.S. have been consolidated into one case for pre-trial motions.

Lawyers for Toyota argued the company doesn’t have direct control over its dealerships, which are independently owned and operated, and would not be able to enforce such an order.

The judge, however, sided with personal injury lawyers representing plaintiffs, who contended the internal documents might provide valuable insight into what Toyota and its dealers knew about sudden acceleration problems and when they knew it.

Toyota, the world’s largest car maker, has recalled more than eight million vehicles for repairs due to sudden, unintended acceleration. Also, in September 2010, the automaker announced the recall of 3.8 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles because defective floor mats might cause accelerator pedals to become pinned to the floor, causing the vehicles to speed off. Selna is only handling cases related to defective gas pedals, not floor mats.

Read more about the Toyota recalls for sudden acceleration related to faulty gas pedals and floor mats in LawInfo’s Toyota Recall Legal Resource Center.